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The Suicide Squad trailer is here, and the film looks wonderfully bonkers

From Harley Quinn to Bloodsport, James Gunn's DC flick is jam-packed with wild convicts. Along with a humanoid shark and giant starfish.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Sean Keane Former Senior Writer
Sean knows far too much about Marvel, DC and Star Wars, and poured this knowledge into recaps and explainers on CNET. He also worked on breaking news, with a passion for tech, video game and culture.
Expertise Culture, Video Games, Breaking News
Jennifer Bisset
Sean Keane
2 min read
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Killer Shark stops for a bite in The Suicide Squad trailer.

Warner Bros/Screenshot by Sean Keane/CNET

A first full trailer has arrived for DC's The Suicide Squad, and it has director James Gunn written all over it. Listen for a rocking soundtrack, a highlight of Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Plus, you'll catch glimpses of almost 20 off-the-wall supervillains, including Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, John Cena's Peacemaker and Idris Elba's Bloodsport. Check out the violent, profanity laced trailer below:

Classified as a standalone sequel to David Ayer's negatively received Suicide Squad from 2016, the new flick brings back a few of the same supervillains and introduces new ones -- most of whom you can expect to be killed off in violent ways, considering the R-rating. Along with Cena and Elba, big cast additions include Sylvester Stallone, Alice Braga, Peter Capaldi, Pete Davidson, Nathan Fillion and Storm Reid.

They're playing various supervillains freed from Belle Reve penitentiary to take on a, yep, suicidal mission. Viola Davis' Amanda Waller returns to run the Task Force X program, enlisting the large squad to destroy a Nazi-era prison and laboratory.

The humanoid shark guy is Killer Shark, voiced by Stallone, and the trailer suggests he'll responsible for some of the movie's goriest moments. We also catch a glimpse of what appears to be Starro, a starfish-like telepathic alien whose comic counterpart was the first villain to face the Justice League.  

Here's a handy guide to streaming The Suicide Squad on HBO Max.

Gunn took on The Suicide Squad after Disney and Marvel dismissed him from directing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2018 when his past controversial tweets surfaced. A day after Gunn agreed to work for Warner Bros. in the DC Extended Universe, Disney did a 180 and reinstated him as the Guardians threequel director.

In the end, we're getting two comic book movies through Gunn's wonderful and absurd vision. The Suicide Squad is scheduled to be released Aug. 6 in theaters and on HBO Max, while Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a few years away, scheduled for 2023.

If that weren't enough, Cena's spinoff TV series, Peacemaker, is looking at a January 2022 release on HBO Max.

Read more: Everything you need to know to sign up for HBO Max

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